Rehab

I recently had shoulder surgery and my arm was placed in a sling for several weeks. Stitched. Sore. Swollen. Seemingly lifeless.

While the surgery wasn’t a full reconstruction, it was an intensely painful procedure nonetheless. But how did this all come about? Why am I, a middle-aged man, having to surgically repair my shoulder?

I’ve been active all my life playing sports, going on adventures, and at times pushing my body to limits that were rushing with adrenaline. Never giving much thought to the pushing and pulling and tugging and stretching that was being placed on my body.

I was young. I must have thought I was invincible. And any setback caused by pain was met with the reverberating echo of “no pain, no gain!” I would ice and heat those muscles and joints long enough to do it all again. And it often worked as the short term solution to any irritating twinge. But eventually father time catches up with us all.

So back to the surgery. Put to sleep. Opened up. Prodding around. Detach this. Re-attach that. Stitched up. Awakened. Put in a car. Sent home. I’m sure there’s an art and a lot of science to the incisions and repairs but that’s essentially what it seemed like to me.

There were some repairs that are requiring intense rehabilitation. But there is also a need to rehab some acutely painful areas that weren’t surgically repaired. There’s some inflammation and irritation from the poking and prodding on my shoulder that have been in place and in tact for years.

Isn’t this also true in other facets of life? Parts of who we are seem to be stable and working just fine until something or somebody starts poking around on them. The instruments meant to re-construct are penetrating areas of life we thought were functioning properly.

Philosophies and ideals. Values and traditions. Attitudes and actions. A lifestyle we’ve embraced since we were kids now being challenged by society at varying degrees and angles.

Things in life are constantly evolving; changing. As seasons change our presuppositions may be challenged. I once heard a guy say, ‘pay attention to the tension.’ The tension doesn’t necessarily require an overhaul on beliefs but it invites a tenderness to the table of diversity. I think there’s merit to filtering our beliefs through a grid of differences to better understand others’ view of life.

Here’s where rehab really needs to begin; it’s a change from the inside out. Rehab is not just some modification or even a re-formation; it’s a transformation. It’s a shift in the way we think and feel about what we see and experience. It begins with the heart.

It appears there’s a need for a reorientation of our hearts; we need spiritual rehabilitation. Permission to open us up. Light up the darkness. Expose our hearts to the truth. To replace our sin-stricken heart with a heart of goodness.

If the way I see the world needs to be changed, then it will have to occur in the deepest parts of who I am. Legislation won’t change me. An emotional surge won’t change me. Not even positive reinforcement for a certain behavior can sustain that change in me.

It’s not behavior modification that we need. It’s a heart transplant that we need. Ezekiel wrote, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Rehabilitation for a new heart is immense. Putting to death all the old tendencies for new ones. Old inclinations for new ones. Old attitudes for new ones. Letting the blood of His righteousness flow through our veins as a “new creation” in Christ will give us strength and wisdom we never could have imagined apart from Him.

Conditioning our heart to flex a muscle of faith to a watching world won’t be easy. But it’s not just conditioning our heart. It’s realizing our need for a new heart altogether. Here’s how Paul summed it up to the church in Colossae, “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Right now there’s a watching world literally dying to know the truth. Many are plagued by evil. Others paralyzed by fear. Still others confined to old patterns of thinking. Believing that the muscle memory of their conscience is strong enough to withstand the evils of our day. What we need is more than rehab; we need a total heart replacement.